


Apples and Flowers

by a pair of tweezers (pyroooah)



Category: Naruto
Genre: Also she beats up her bullies, Bullying, Crack Pairings, F/M, First Crush, Fluff and Humor, Kushina and weird feelings don't go well together, One-Sided Attraction, POV Uzumaki Kushina, This is AU and she will be the first female Hokage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-06
Updated: 2020-08-06
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:08:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,267
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25743328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pyroooah/pseuds/a%20pair%20of%20tweezers
Summary: Life's hard when you’re ten, being bullied for your hair, and you have a crush on this older teen—who has weirder hair than yours.
Relationships: Kizashi Haruno/Uzumaki Kushina
Comments: 7
Kudos: 27





	Apples and Flowers

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sage_thrasher](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sage_thrasher/gifts).



> at this point, I’m quite literally that person who writes about Kizashi Haruno fics laoooalskdal. I do like niche side characters and crack pairings. 
> 
> Here’s to Sage Thrasher (Who writes super cool fics like Sanitize), who gave me this idea a looong time ago and I haven't spoken to in some time. 
> 
> Hope you get a laugh if you ever stumble on this. She's responsible for some of the better dialogue on here as per our discord chats. I just mucked around and expanded it two years later.
> 
> S/o to my good friend Ras who beta'ed for me after all my whinging.

She wasn’t crying. A stupid piece of dirt got in her eye. She wasn’t crying.

Kushina was perched on a crate—in an alley somewhere in the middle of a busy market place—hunched over on herself, as she sobbed into her arms. She wasn’t crying. Why was everyone in this stupid village so mean to her? 

She was going to be Hokage and show ‘em. She would be the strongest woman in the village and then—

“Um…” 

Some jerk decided to interrupt her internal monologue, and Kushina raised her fist to knock him out. She faltered as he ducked. 

“Sorry, sorry!” An older teen boy—who had petal hair—looked at her with a flustered look. “I didn’t mean to scare ya. I just needed to get the crate you're sitting on.” He smiled at her. 

Kushina flushed. She got off the crate and glared at him, because she was more embarrassed at herself.

“Why were you crying?” he asked her, as he hefted the heavy crate up. “Did someone do something to you?” 

He eyed the dirt on her tear-streaked red face rubbed raw. 

“I’m _not_ crying!” she snapped. “Something went in my eye.” 

He eyed her for a long moment. 

“Do ya wanna talk about it?”

“Why should I tell you?” she asked him. “You’ll just make fun of my hair like all the stupid kids! Everyone is stupid in this village!” 

He took a step back and he frowned. 

“What’s wrong with it?” 

She looked at his hair, and his hair was pale pink—but it was shaped like a flower. She gaped at it. What kind of weird hairdo was that!?

“Your hair is even weirder than mine!” she blurted out. 

She expected him to get mad at her. Instead of getting mad, he chuckled.

“It's pretty cool, huh?” 

She looked at him skeptically. 

“The Harunos are known for more than their cool hair, and their great business practices,” he said. He reached into the crate, pulled out an apple and tossed it at her. “Your hair is like this apple, by the way.” 

She caught the apple and her nose twitched as she stared at it's red surface. It then clicked a moment later. 

“Did you just compare my hair to an apple?” she hollered after him. He tittered with laughter as he elbowed the door, and he let himself in through the back door of his shop. 

She glared at the apple. 

* * *

She wasn't a kunoichi if she couldn't get information about him. His name was Kizashi, and he worked at a fruit stand owned by his father. 

The next day, she stopped by said fruit stand after school, ready to pick a fight with him, because she hated being called an apple. Stupid flower-head. Who the hell compares her to an apple? She walked over to the nearby meadows after school, and she plucked out a fist full of pink flowers. 

She was the Uzumaki Kushina and she was going to be Hokage, you know?

He was gingerly peeling a banana, and he took a chomp. She glared and pointed her finger at him. 

“You! I have a beef with you!” 

His father—assuming from his weird pink hair—slapped his son’s back. Kizashi almost choked on the banana from the force of the blow. 

“You pickin’ fights with little girls, Kizashi?”

“What!?” Kizashi spluttered. “No?” 

“I just want ya to know that if my hair is red like an apple—” she stuck out the fist full of pink mismatched flowers at him “—yours is like these stupid flowers!” 

A beat. After the beat, both father and son collapsed into laughter. 

"WHAT?!" she asked. “Are you _both_ laughing at me?” 

“Cute kid,” his father declared. He tossed her an apple. “Here you go.”

She caught it suspiciously. They were so weird _and_ they had weird hair. Why were they giving her apples though?

Kizashi leaned over the counter, and Kushina was struck by how tall he was—or how the light from the sun hit his eyes, and he grinned at her. 

“I meant to say that it was pretty shade of red like that apple.” 

Kushina narrowed her eyes at him, before the word pretty registered. Her cheek warmed. 

"Whatever," she huffed hotly. “You still got _weirder_ hair.” 

* * *

If you asked Kushina why she kept coming back to the fruit stand—she couldn’t say. She caught a thief who was trying to steal some fruit, and then she chased him down, while Kizashi almost hailed down the Uchiha police force frantically—more out of worry for her in case she got hurt. 

He needn't have worried. The thief was more scared than she was. He made her let the thief go. 

He was such a _pushover_ , she thought grumpily. 

“You could have seriously gotten hurt,” he told her as he disinfected and cleaned the scrape on her leg. “He might have had a knife.” She yowled. 

“I’m a ninja,” she told him through gritted teeth. “Can’t you be gentler? It hurts, yanno?” 

He gave her a skeptical look. 

“I know, but I can’t help but worry about kids. Besides, it happens a lot. The thief might have been hungry or something.” 

Kushina thought about that for a moment, and she stared at her feet. He walked over to the stand to help someone. Kushina narrowed her eyes at his back. He was a pushover, but he was kind. 

“When I’m Hokage,” she began haughtily, once the customer left. “No one is gonna be hungry then!” 

Kizashi turned around and he raised an eyebrow. “You want to be Hokage?” 

Defensive, Kushina glared at him. “You thinkin’ it’s impossible?” 

“No,” he said. “You could totally be Hokage. You’re a pretty tough kid.” He snapped up his thumb with a grin. “Konoha would be in good hands with ya!” 

The sunlight was hitting his eyes again, that made his petal hair brighter like a halo, and he had a bright smile. Kushina had told the whole village that she was going to be Hokage, and they had to deal with it. But this was the first time she’d ever gotten such a reaction. 

And Kushina saw herself wearing the Hokage robes, a hokage hat, looking over the village and being super cool, while her super long red hair billowed behind her.

“When I become Hokage, we’re going to have National Ramen day.”

“Uh huh.” 

* * *

The Haruno fruit-stall saw Kushina coming by a lot more. She got free food. They let her stand guard over the fruits, and she folded her arms and sat on a rather tall stool. She handled the shop when the boss left to get something inside. She glared down at the suspicious fellas, and she realized she really liked apples. 

Kushina lived with Grandma Mito at the Senju compound. Biwako came by to replenish groceries for Grandma Mito and Kushina. She looked pointedly at the empty fruit dish, and she noted it down. Kushina was about to leave out the window when Biwako dragged her around for grocery shopping.

Grocery shopping was boring. But she managed to drag Biwako-san over to the Haruno fruit stand. His father eyed her and Kushina with a smile as Biwako looked at the apples.

“Kizashi ain’t around today,” he said, while fanning himself lazily with a newspaper. 

“Oh.” 

“Don’t worry,” he said kindly. “He’ll be in tomorrow.” 

Kushina couldn’t help but feel a bit dejected. 

Biwako decided to buy a bag of apples, and Kushina had to hold them. His father added another apple to the bag. “Here’s one for the little Hokage.” 

On the Hokage’s wife’s typically pinched expression was an amused smile as she regarded the slightly pouty girl. 

* * *

Three days later, she got into another fight.

She’d punched a bully of hers for calling her a tomato-head. His lackey came to join him. She beat him too by headbutting him. Dirty and stained, they eyed her warily as she huffed and puffed. 

“SHUT UP!” she hollered. “You’re all stupid!” 

“You ain’t nothing but a to-ma-to head!” One of the boys called out to her. 

“It’s actually pretty like the color of an apple!” she yelled back. 

The academy children just glanced at her with confusion.

“What?” 

“What did she just say?” 

Why had she said that? She panicked. 

They all started to titter with laughter, and Kushina decided that enough was enough. 

“What are you laughing at, you jerks!?” she yelled. A blonde-haired boy—who she didn’t see—stepped in her direction, as if he wanted to help. 

Why was she saying weird things? 

Kushina blushed hotly. She picked up her book bag—which she’d discarded during the fight, and she stomped off. Before she knew it, her feet were taking her through Konoha and towards the fruit stall. 

Stupid flower-head was making her say crazy things, and with that thought, she mussed her hair till it looked like she’d been through a hurricane. 

Kizashi was carrying a crate and packing up for the day when he saw her.

“Kid?” he asked her. He looked exasperated. “Did you get into a fight again?” 

She scrunched up her nose. 

“They called me a tomato head,” she said shortly. 

“Geez,” he said. He reached into his pockets, pulled out his handkerchief, and wiped dirt off her face gently. She stared at his cheeks. “How are you gonna be Hokage if you are gonna get riled up over some snot-nosed kid callin’ you tomato-head?” 

Up close, he had freckles. 

The setting sun was doing something strange to his skin. He was painted in swathes of red light and it lit up his stupid pretty green eyes. He looked at her.

“You okay, kid?” 

She sprung forwards and wrapped him in a hug. He slowly patted her back with a confused look. 

“Aww, kid,” she heard his hum into her hair. “You just gotta tell em that they have ugly boring hair. You’re an Uzumaki. Uzumaki Kushina is the coolest girl around with the coolest hair in the village who is gonna be the coolest Hokage one day.” 

* * *

The next week she showed up, the elder Haruno glanced over his shoulder, and he called out with a grin. 

“Oi, Kizashi! Your girlfriend’s here!” 

Kushina felt her cheeks growing warm, and then she stomped her foot. “I’m not his girlfriend!” 

But at the same time, a very very tiny part of her brain thought it wasn’t a bad idea. Then that tiny part whispered that they would be one of those icky lovey dovey couples—she waved her arms in front of her face as if she was swatting away the mere idea. 

“What?” Kizashi stepped out from the shadows. “Oh, it’s just you.” 

“What do you mean it’s _just me_?”

“Awh, you know I didn’t mean it like that!” 

“Stop calling me kid!” 

“Okay, okay, mini-Hokage.” 

“Don’t call me that either!” 

“Well, jeez, what am I supposed to call ya?” 

That tiny part of her brain told her ‘Honey.’ Because that’s what those lovey dovey icky couples called each other. But she wasn’t one of them! She mussed up her hair in frustration. She wasn’t one of them! 

“Hey… kid, you okay?” 

“Kushina!” She stomped her foot, cheeks warming, because she didn’t want to think like that! He looked startled. “Kushina! Kushina!” 

“Okay!” he said with a laugh. “Fine! Kushina.”

* * *

He was pushing crates up into the top shelf, and she was sitting on the crate watching him, as he made room for another crate. She clenched her fists at her sides. He has a circle on his back, the Haruno clan symbol, he said once. She clenched her eyes shut and opened them with pursed lips. 

“Hey!” she called out. 

It was probably due to being used to her being around that he didn’t flinch.

“Yeah, Kushina?” He reached for another box, and he reached to tuck it beside the other one. 

Because she had to summon up—um, what was it that Gramps used to say?—that special Uzumaki courage. So while his back was still turned, she huffed in her breath, and then let it all out. 

“I WANT TO BE YOUR GIRLFRIEND!” 

Kizashi stumbled with the box. She hopped off the crate with lightning speed to catch him, and she pushed her hands against his back. Once the box was tucked into the shelf, he turned around. 

“Whoa…,” he said, and he looked like he was processing. “Okay, um…,” he held out a finger towards her. He blinked at her. “W-Wha...?”

“Did you not hear me?” she stomped her foot. Her face was probably matching her hair. 

“I did!” he said. “You want to be m-my—” 

“Girlfriend!” she repeated. “Is there something stuck in your ear?” 

“Hang on, Kushina. I’m way too old to be your boyfriend,” he said. “You’re like ten. I’m sixteen.” 

“So?!” 

“Er… um…?” He rubbed the back of his neck. “How about this? If you’re still interested in a couple of years—say five or six or eight years, talk to me, okay?” 

Kushina stared at him.

“I’m not gonna wait that long, ya know?” She jabbed a finger at his chest. “I’m going to give you a month, and I'm going to be your girlfriend!" 

“Oh boy,” he laughed nervously. “A year, maybe?” 

She decided that that was that with a hard nod, and her ears were still steaming. She ran out the backdoor leaving him staring after her with wide eyes and scratching the back of his neck.

"One month!" 

“Seriously, kid?” he hollered after her. "This is _not_ how it works!" 


End file.
